Responsible Business

Labour standards in our supply chain

Metcash is committed to complying with relevant modern slavery legislation, including respecting and upholding human rights across our operations and supply chains.

We oppose any form of modern slavery such as slavery servitude, human trafficking and enforced labour, and we recognise that
we can influence our supply chains and make positive changes to people’s lives. Our approach to human rights is underpinned by the United Nations Framework and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the eight international (ILO) fundamental conventions.

During the year, a risk assessment was undertaken to identify potential risk areas of modern slavery and human rights violation in our supply chain and operations. The assessment took into consideration risk by country of origin, industry, product and spend level with reference to the Social Hot Spots Database. This database is maintained by an independent body for the purpose of providing social risk ratings on goods and services. Further potential risk identification was provided through our membership with the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX), which also enables us to review the social audits of many of our suppliers that subscribe to this platform.

Using the findings of these assessments, Metcash commenced a targeted supplier engagement program to investigate areas  identified as having elevated risk. Most of this work is scheduled to be carried out in FY21.

Further progress against Metcash’s plan for mitigating the risk of modern slavery included:

Further information will be provided in the Company’s first Modern Slavery Statement due for release later this year. Our Anti-Slavery Policy is available here.

Responsible Sourcing

We remain committed to ensuring our range of Community Co private label products adheres to responsible sourcing principles. This includes working with our suppliers to ensure compliance with our requirements.

More broadly, all food products can only contain RSPO certified sustainable palm oil and must be free of genetically modified ingredients, artificial colours and flavours. We are committed to local and sustainable sourcing with our fresh beef, pork and poultry sourced locally, within Australia. We also stipulate that all our wood and paper based products must have Forest Stewardship Council certification.

Food donation and food waste

We continued to expand our food rescue program at our Food warehouses and across our independent retailer network. This led to the amount of food being distributed by our partners Foodbank, OzHarvest and ‘Food For Change’ to those in need increasing 25% in FY20 to ~530 tonnes.

Our newly established partnership with ‘Food For Change’ is now operating in 60 IGA stores across New South Wales and Queensland and has resulted in over 120,000 meals being provided to those in need. The program includes the IGA store being provided with a customised app that connects the store to their local food relief agency. Further expansion of this program is expected in FY21.

We are continuing to collaborate with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on programs to reduce food waste going to landfill. The collaboration includes staff education programs and transitioning certain stores in New South Wales to auto-ordering to minimise human error in stock management.

This collaboration includes the roll out of a national training program across the IGA network focused on food waste avoidance, as well as the provision of education material for shoppers and members of the IGA Family Program. The education material includes a ‘Food Waste Calculator’ designed to provide a better understanding of the true cost of food waste using a life cycle assessment tool.